Legends of Aria

Legends of Aria was formerly known as Shard Online. The former’s development arc was prolific and garnered huge interest from the sandbox MMORPG community. Today, Legends of Aria has come along way with plenty of gameplay improvements, both to the world and the combat. It’s been in early access since late 2018, but the game will officially launch on Steam this coming August 6th. Why should you put it on your Wishlist? Because Legends of Aria is a living breathing world defined and shaped by its player community. It is a world of dangers where bonds are forged – and broken – by players writing their own stories. The team at Citadel Studios has been hard at work responding to player feedback, and have crafted a version of Aria that is able to be enjoyed by those who wish to live the quiet life and those who want to go rogue and hunt down their fellow adventurers. Much of the game world is now safe from the harsh life of open PVP, but lawless regions still exist – and in those areas, anything goes. You might uncover untold treasures out there, but are you willing to take the risk?

Pagan Online

Wargaming’s first attempt at an ARPG game resulted in Pagan Online. It has tons of monsters to bash or curse depending on what class you play as, plus hours of gameplay to be had. You’ll play missions that progress the campaign, while unlocking new classes. Pagan Online also has a crafting system for gear and itemization, and in typical ARPG fashion, loot is king. Expect to be farming legendaries and forming builds with your favorite class and their Skill Trees in order to overcome harder difficulty challenges. Pagan Online will officially launch on Steam on August 27th, and the region block will be lifted. That means yes, you can now view the game’s Steam Store page if you previously couldn’t. While it still carries the Early Access moniker, expect the game to feel like what despite the massive amounts of updates in between. That means, bugs, imbalances and maybe a rare wipe before official launch arrives.

Iratus: Lord of the Dead

If you’ve ever played Darkest Dungeon before, you’re in for a treat. Iratus: Lord of the Dead is its evil twin. You play as the bad guy, controlling your evil minions against the hero adventurers in this roguelike RPG dungeon crawler. Iratus: Lord of the Dead will challenge your strategic prowess on all fronts, with permadeath affecting not only minions but enemies, as well. Body parts and essence are finite resources in the game’s sprawling dungeon overworld, so you’ll need to think carefully about what you conjure and how it’ll help you exact revenge. The game is now officially out on Steam Early Access (as of July 25th) and you can jump into it right now. Just be warned, early reviews seem to suggest that balance is off right now, making the game fiendishly difficult.

Re:Legend

Re:Legend incorporates the best parts from games like ARK: Survival Evolved, Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley into their very own blend of co-op multiplayer JRPG. You’ll encounter hybrid combining farming and life-simulation mechanics with strong monster-raising and multiplayer features, Re:Legend invites players to build and expand their village through a huge variety of life-simulation activities, inclusive of farming, fishing, crafting and more. Set in the world of Ethia, players awake as a legendary hero, washed ashore on Vokka Island with no memories. Players must revive their hero, and find ways to remember the forgotten past. By learning how to survive – cultivating the land, breeding and catching fish, befriending inhabitants, expanding the village, crafting weaponry and training for combat, among all the available activities – players will increase the chances of taming and raising the Magnus, magical creatures that populate this wondrous world. With a Magnus on his/her side, the adventurer will be able to venture across the land, facing threatening challenges, finding even more powerful Magnus and eventually regain lost memories. Re:Legend launches on Steam this August.

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ARK: Survival Evolved

The Eggcellent Adventure has returned to ARK along with giant Bunnies! Today kicks off a two-week in-game event in ARK: Survival Evolved where special Easter Eggs will be scattered across all official ARK maps. This fourth annual event features all the festive items from prior years along with two new skins, the Marshmallow Dodo Hat and the Chocolate Bunny Club!

ArcheAge

During the Easter season this year, players find themselves facing off in an action-packed Spring Race in ArcheAge. After selecting one of two daring vehicles they can navigate their way around traps to find the holy Daru Priests. Their goal is to receive the symbolic blessings of each Priest and celebrate their achievements by trading their Spring Race Tokens for various rewards.

Aura Kingdom

In Aura Kingdom, players have the chance to win an Eidolon. Using special Easter coins, they can purchase Eidolon eggs from which endearing Eidolons can hatch. And the Community Managers are preparing various events where players will have to find bunnies and eggs all around Azuria!

Black Desert Online

Spring fever is back on BDO, and beginning today until April 24th, the game rewards everyone for simply playing. Hitting the 1 hour, 2 hour and 3 hour play time milestone gifts players items such as pet food, Cron Stones, Blessed Messages and more. Additionally, Combat and Skill EXP boosts are on for the weekend.

RuneScape

Running to the end of April, players will support different guilds taking part in the fete through side-quests and tasks to try and win a mysterious egg found in Gielinor by the Easter Bunny. They’ll also have the chance to gather fragments of crystallised chocolate eggs that when combined create a special reward. The event also allows players to donate RuneCoins that will be converted into a real-world donation to Jagex’s two chosen charities: The Prince’s Trust and CPSL Mind.

Last Chaos

Last Chaos offers engaging events, in which players can go on an egg hunt throughout the lands of Iris and Ascadia. The different eggs offer valuable rewards or can be used to fulfill the Easter quest series.

Fiesta Online

Fiesta Online offers a special Kingdom Quest, in which players have to protect precious golden eggs from vicious monsters and collect Easter eggs which can be exchanged for exclusive rewards.

Echo of Soul and Trove

Even heroes need a break occasionally. In Echo of Soul – Kingdom, players can collect painted eggs and get great rewards in return. Until April 23rd players can attend colorful Mount Parades in Trove and gather bonus Mount Talismans.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic

A quick search on most MMORPGS forums and community sites will yield similar sentiments. For starters, Star Wars: The Old Republic, is no longer an MMORPG worth the subscription. Harsh, considering it’s base game is free to play with restrictions, but in recent times the game has deserved those sentiments. It’s incredibly bare bones for the MMORPG enthusiast – early leveling is boring and lifeless as zones are empty. There hasn’t been sufficient group content in comparison to other MMORPGs out there. All in all, SWTOR feels like a glorified single player game with multiplayer components added in like PvP Warzones. 2019 could change that drastically, beginning with the release of Update 5.10 this month. A return to a Sith vs Jedi story-line could bring players back, and rumor has it that it leads to a new expansion in 2019. One hopes that all the big content like new raids and flashpoints in addition to a large open world questing map returns, which will steer the game back on the path to an MMORPGS worth its subscription again.

Final Fantasy XIV

Unlike SWTOR, Final Fantasy XIV or FFXIV for short, doesn’t have issues like low player numbers or lack of content. On the contrary, FFXIV has been excellent, offering MMORPG players an all rounded experience for the monthly sub. While Heavensward and Stormblood are great expansions, it does appear that Square Enix is using the same formula for everything. Story quests feel linear and re-used. Dungeons and Raids are fun but nothing players haven’t seen before. 2019’s Shadowbringers expansion will definitely shake things up as players get to move over to the dark side (sorry, SWTOR), and let’s hope that’s not all that’s changing. A more unorthodox approach to story-telling, content unlock gating and more also needs a shake up, and if you’ve not played FFXIV in a while, it might be worth returning next summer to see what’s new.

RIFT

Trion Worlds was bought out by Gamigo group late this year, effectively killing what hope RIFT players had for the game’s future. On paper, that’s what it felt like at least. However, the small development team behind the game currently has come out numerous times on the RIFT forums to assure players that the show will go on. While comforting, one can only speculate what that means. Will RIFT’s live version (PRIME is a nostalgia progression server) see any new content, or expansions in 2019? What will happen will come down to the first order of business, the producer’s letter for 2019. As soon as we see what the devs have in store, we can then confirm the game’s demise, or anticipate it’s resurgence. Either way, keep an eye on RIFT, the last bastion of the old school theme park MMORPGs of the last decade.

Black Desert Online

10 Million players since launch, a new expansion, two new classes, and a remastered version of the game on top of a console launch are just some of the accomplishments that Korea’s biggest MMORPG import, Black Desert Online, has achieved in 2018. Regardless of what’s being said about the core systems – pay to win, grindy, for perverts – the game sells, and to the developers Kakao Games and Pearl Abyss, that’s all that matters. What BDO has accomplished in 2018 is scary when you think about it. What other MMORPG in the West matched BDO’s industrious 2018? Quite simply none. While the graphics has improved, the gameplay has not. 2019 could be the year we see BDO do more crazy things, and hopefully fix the game’s perception that it’s pay to win, and secondly, expand to places other MMO’s could not or will not. Yes, we know there’s a mobile version, but we’re waiting for news on the Nintendo Switch version. And at the rate Pearl Abyss is progresing, we’re calling it – it will happen.

Tied (World of Warcraft & Guild Wars 2)

World of Warcraft

Lousy end-game gear progression, underwhelming feature content and other issues that the Battle for Azeroth expansion launched with, will be mostly fixed by Blizzard in 2019. Players these days seem to forget that an expansion cycle for WoW spans two years, and a lot happens in-between. Returning players will definitely want to jump back in as early as Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance to see some of the improvements made to the game since BFA launched in August 2018.

Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet’s best selling MMORPG is still relevant, still heavily played, and we expect it to remain so in 2019. Guild Wars 2 is innovating still, 6 years after launch and that’s always a good sign. Beetle Racing is now a thing, and while fluff to some, it’s an indicator that the studio will continue to push out a wide variety of content, and we’re excited to see what happens in 2019. We know there’s a massive World vs World update coming next year that will drastically improve things. But what else is possible?

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Best Triple A MMORPG 2019

Elder Scrolls Online (PC/PS4/XB)

The Elder Scrolls Online is having a fantastic year. Zenimax Online Studios have been keeping its 10 million players and counting happy this year. The game released a full Chapter (expansion) in Summerset in 2018, in addition to numerous DLC updates like Dragon Bones and Murkmire. Not only are they content rich – but also tweaks and adds plenty of quality of life improvements. For example, players are given log-in rewards, which let them earn DLC like Murkmire for free. Additionally, players on the ESO Plus subscription got more value for their money, as the monthly Crowns stipend increased and members are given additional perks like free items and exclusive discounts. Moreover, much more polish and other feature arrived this year too like the ability to finally make cosmetic outfit and save them in slots. PvP Battlegrounds became free for all, Morrowind got bundled into the base game purchase and much more. It’s hard to argue that ESO is at the moment, on top of their game.

Elder Scrolls Online have led the way this year when it comes to releasing good content on top of great features for its players. Based on this, 2019 look set to be another great year for ESO if they can keep up the pace of putting out good content on time.

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (PC/PS4)

Another MMORPG that can boast 10 million registered players in 2018 is Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV. The Stormblood expansion released in 2017 is still going strong content-wise. This year, players have seen an incredibly cool crossover with Monster Hunter: World, in addition to the slew of updates that progresses the main story chain further. The game also received numerous group content updates which is crucial for an MMORPG to survive.

Final Fantasy XIV definitely saved the best for last. It was announced only two weeks ago that the game’s third expansion, Shadowbringers, will arrive in summer 2019. The expansion gives players the opportunity to crossover from Warriors of Light to Warriors of Darkness, and brings more jobs and classes to the game. The cool thing about FFXIV is that with every new job, players don’t need to roll alts as one character may pick up several jobs. The Blue Mage is the latest coming to the game. While FFXIV suffers from content drought and DDOS attacks from time to time, it’s still a fantastic MMORPG and 2019 will be a big year for the game.

World of Warcraft (PC)

The world of Azeroth got bigger in 2018 as the war returned between the Alliance and the Horde. 2018 started with the winding down of 2016’s Legion expansion, as players said goodbye to their Artifact Weapons. Everything went pear-shaped however, when Sylvannas attacks Darnassus due to the emergence of Azerite, the world’s essence that’s come to the surface thanks to that huge sword sticking out of the world’s surface.

That led to the Battle for Azeroth expansion in August, which brought new maps and zones to quest in, including new dungeons and raids. Overall, BFA has been a great addition to the WoW universe, but not without it’s fair share of issues. The Azerite system that replaced Artifact Weapons are far from perfect, but tweaks and improvements are coming and that will be the case leading into 2019. The expansion also apparently saw the most amount of WoW subscription numbers dropping, but people love the drama of a game losing players, so pay no attention to it if you’re looking for a solid all rounded MMORPG to play in 2019. With fixes, tweaks, the continuation of the Horde vs Alliance story and more raids coming in 2019, the Battle for Azeroth expansion can only get better in time.

Guild Wars 2 (PC)

Rounding up the big AAA MMORPG titles to play in 2019 is ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2. It was a genre-changer when released in 2012, and six years later the game is still going strong on the heels of its 2017 Path of Fire expansion. Guild Wars 2 has become more accessible since making the base game free to play, and many gameplay systems have improved the game like Mounts. In 2018 the game saw numerous quality of life updates like changes to make underwater combat better, and making runes and sigil salvageable to save inventory space. For PvP players, Guild Wars 2 has added 2v2 arenas and and World vs World should get its major update in 2019 that removes the need for servers that limits playing with friends and guilds.

Additionally on the content front, 2018 saw a steady release of new maps and story content for the game’s Living World Season 4 that continues the Path of Fire storyline. 2019 will definitely build on this, and we’re expecting a big announcement later in 2019 regarding a new expansion or something else.

Best Upcoming MMORPG 2019

Anthem (PC/PS4/XB)

Of all the MMO titles currently in early access, only EA’s Anthem has a set release date, and the game arrives for all platforms in February 2019. In Anthem, up to four players explore and battle in a dangerous, mysterious place populated by great characters and a unique BioWare story. Players will also create stories of their own while they play, so no two journeys are the same. Javelin exosuits make their pilots powerful heroes in the world, with awesome weapons and incredible special abilities that allow for combat and exploration in a hostile environment. Players will be able to customize and personalize their suits with unique paint jobs and gear so they’ll have the right tools to confront almost any situation, and look good doing it.

So far, the multiplayer aspect excites more than going solo as we’re all about online play. The game should give similar online titles with RPG elements like Destiny 2, Planetside 2, Defiance and more a run for its money. The downside? It’s EA, and their reputation has worsened in 2018.

Ashes of Creation (PC)

Ashes of Creation is still the biggest hyped MMORPG yet to be released today. It garnered famed through its widely shared Kickstarter campaign that raised over $3million overnight, promising to make MMORPGs great again with complex systems, group play, player driven towns, economies and communities. Solo play will still be viable for those that prefer it, but the devs believe that MMOs are best when players come together. One of the first things we learn is that the base group size in Ashes is eight. It’s a steady increase from other games, where four to six is usually the norm. 8-man groups allows the content to amplify party roles and take advantage of all class archetypes. Speaking of roles, Ashes of Creation will emphasize importance on the holy trinity. That is of course, the Tank, DPS and Healer. However, Support roles are as equally important via the secondary class system to make customizing player characters a key feature.

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